"While already on the road on the European leg of the "Monotheist" tour, we were informed of strict curfews to our co-headlining shows with Kreator in the UK. These curfews have been imposed locally and are not a stipulation by either Celtic Frost or Kreator. As a matter of fact, we oppose these curfews explicitly, and we have informed both our management and our concert agency accordingly. There is little we can do, however.

Celtic Frost and Kreator and the bands' representatives have spent months trying to assemble an appropriate and exciting touring package of four bands that cover a wide variety of contemporary metal. We loathe the fact that we are now finally back out on the road - in Celtic Frost's case, for the first time in some 17 years - and have to discover that the local booker and promoters in the UK impose curfews so unrealistically strict that it is impossible to put on the regular performances by all four bands on the bill as played everywhere else in Europe. Apparently, some of the UK venues book two events during certain nights, i.e., in this case our tour and another event. This will yield twice the profits for them in one night, but it also means that the first event, namely our tour, will have to clear the venue at an unreasonably early hour, as early as 9:30 or 10:00pm.

There appears to be no proper solution to this situation. Both headliners are categorically unwilling to cancel the performances of either our opening act or special guest, Watain and Legion Of The Damned, in order to play full headlining sets. Just like us, Watain and Legion of the Damned have travelled thousands of miles and gone through great expenses to play all of Europe. The local booker and promoters in the UK are equally unwilling to extend their ludicrous curfews, even for a mere 30 minutes. The alternative, so we are informed, would be a cancelled concert.

Having all four bands play at least a semblance of a set means that the duration of all sets will be severely restricted. In case of Celtic Frost and Kreator, this means sets of 60 minutes, in case of Watain and Legion of the Damned, sets of 20 minutes. This applies to the following shows: Glasgow, Bradford, Wolverhampton, Cardiff, and Nottingham. All bands involved believe that playing a set is better than cancelling any show. That we all are extremely frustrated, if not to say furious, about this situation is obvious."

ha, well yes - this obviously makes me angry - the tickets were a lot of money and we arent even going to get a full show!!
I really wanted to see Legion Of The Damned as well as the headliners.. 20 minutes!! its a joke!!

I hope that the bands get the crowd to be stubborn and stay where we are!!! hahaha
that would be good! but also they would just turn the electric off to the stage and there would be no point in staying.. haha
I just hope it isnt going to cross the 'disappointing' stage.. one hour each is still a decent time though but still not as much as we should get!!

I hope every band complains that much on stage, gets the audience fired up and break them fuckin curfews 8)

frankeli - 16.03.2007 at 07:27

In my hummble oppinion, all bands concerned should boycot promoters that are greedy enough to do such stupid curfews. That means unity. That means bands should stick together and show force. Once the promoters realize that there's no money pouring in, they will be forced to back down. Money makes the world go around!

saw these guys in nottingham, yeah it was a bit short, pitty that the Legion of the Damned didn;t play and both bands could have played more songs, Watein were awesome, they should have played a couple more songs too. Just one encore for kreator and still we finished well early damn.